Chef Carey posted his recipe for these on the old board last year and I copied it to my computer, but haven't had a chance to try it until now. I just printed it out and will be making both, as I'm having a "Welcome Home" picnic for my son this Sunday as he returns from a year in Iraq. I just bought a new charcoal grill (very large - 175 lbs. from Sam's) and am wondering if 13 lbs. of ribs will be enough. I'll be doing lots of other food, kind of as a warm-up for NiagaraCOOL. I'll post a report after the picnic.

Howie Hart wrote:Chef Carey posted his recipe for these on the old board last year and I copied it to my computer, but haven't had a chance to try it until now. I just printed it out and will be making both, as I'm having a "Welcome Home" picnic for my son this Sunday as he returns from a year in Iraq. I just bought a new charcoal grill (very large - 175 lbs. from Sam's) and am wondering if 13 lbs. of ribs will be enough. I'll be doing lots of other food, kind of as a warm-up for NiagaraCOOL. I'll post a report after the picnic.

I ususally count by "slabs," not pounds. Well, you should get two to three servings per slab if you bought spareribs and one to two per slab for baby backs - one for sure if you invited *my* sons. I would expect your guy is going to be hungry, too. Enjoy!

There are food writers out there who would have us believe the word "barbecue" comes to us from the French "barbe a queue," which translates as "beard to tail." Far fetched, I think. Several 18th and 19th century New World travelers and writers mentioned "barbacoa" or "borbecus,” raised wooden frameworks used as beds or for smoking meats. This linguistic ancestry seems much more likely, given the "racks" or grids on which we "barbecue.”
Ingredient Quantity

1) "Sweat" onions, garlic and ginger in the peanut oil in a sauce pan over medium heat until just soft.
2) Raise heat, add chile powder and sauté about 60 seconds.

3) Dissolve dry mustard in one cup of the red wine.

4) Add all remaining ingredients to pan and thoroughly incorporate.

5) Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer. Simmer about 15 minutes.

Note: For a marinade or a "basting" sauce, dilute one cup of Barbecue Sauce with three cups of water. For chicken or fish, add ½ cup of lemon juice to Barbecue Sauce.

Barbecued Baby Back Ribs

Item number 422 in the National Association of Meat Purveyor\'s Meat Buyer\'s Guide is "Pork Loin, Back Ribs." This is defined as "at least 8 ribs and related intercostal meat from a loin." If there can be said to be a "secret" to cooking pork ribs, that "secret" is this cut of pork. These are the "meaty" ribs that win barbecue contests, not spare ribs. Ask your butcher for the "baby back ribs." The only other “secrets” are the slow cooking period, the sauce and the rub. If you enjoy the flavor of various woods, add chips which have been soaked in cold water to your coals throughout the cooking process. Apple, pecan, mesquite and hickory are popular choices.
Yield: This should satisfy 6-8 hungry folks.

Ingredient Quantity

Pork loin, back ribs 3 or 4 "Slabs"
You Need to Know: The ribs will have a thin membrane covering the back of them. If you can’t see it, turn them over as you’re looking at the front. Take a paring knife and slide it under the membrane so you can get a grip on it. Pull it off. Using a towel makes it easier to grasp. It doesn’t taste bad and won’t harm you, but removing it allows the dry rub and smoke to penetrate the ribs more completely. Rub the dry rub all over the ribs, front and back. Be generous.

Well, I did it and everything was a great success. I did the dry rub on 43 lbs. of ribs and cooked them over charcoal. The grease caught fire for a while so I had to watch the cooking closely, dousing with water occasionally, but after about 4 hours they were excellent and I received numerous compliments. I followed the recipe making 3 substitutions, none of which I believe were detrimental - EVOO for the peanut oil, celery seed for the celery salt and Frank's hot sauce instead of Tabasco (used a bit more as Frank's is not as hot). I bought chicken leg quarters ($.39/lb.) cut off the back section and put in the freezer for soup, and separated the legs into thighs and drumsticks. The thighs marinated overnight in a local made marinade/BBQ (Chiavetta's) while the drumsticks marinated in a 1:3 mixture of Chef Carey's BBQ sauce to water. When finished cooking, I slathered the drumsticks and ribs with some of the sauce and put a bowl of it out with the condiments. As far as the picnic is concerned, it had to be postponed from Sunday until Monday (Memorial Day) as the Army didn't let my son come home until Sunday night. When his Reserve unit arrived at the airport, all the local TV stations were there and they interviewed my son with is his 4-year old son. As far as the rest of the food for the picnic: shrimp cocktail, steamed clams, wilted spinach salad, potato salad, macaroni & tuna salad, 3 bean salad, baked beans, chili, deviled eggs, etc......
Thank you Chef Carey for posting. It helped make my son's homecoming a memorable occasion.

This is very spicey hot stuff but I believe I told Chef Carey his barbecue sauce and rub changed my life or some such hyperbole. In truth, the rub is fabulous and makes everything taste better. The sauce is also excellent.

Howie Hart wrote:Well, I did it and everything was a great success. I did the dry rub on 43 lbs. of ribs and cooked them over charcoal. The grease caught fire for a while so I had to watch the cooking closely, dousing with water occasionally, but after about 4 hours they were excellent and I received numerous compliments. I followed the recipe making 3 substitutions, none of which I believe were detrimental - EVOO for the peanut oil, celery seed for the celery salt and Frank's hot sauce instead of Tabasco (used a bit more as Frank's is not as hot). I bought chicken leg quarters ($.39/lb.) cut off the back section and put in the freezer for soup, and separated the legs into thighs and drumsticks. The thighs marinated overnight in a local made marinade/BBQ (Chiavetta's) while the drumsticks marinated in a 1:3 mixture of Chef Carey's BBQ sauce to water. When finished cooking, I slathered the drumsticks and ribs with some of the sauce and put a bowl of it out with the condiments. As far as the picnic is concerned, it had to be postponed from Sunday until Monday (Memorial Day) as the Army didn't let my son come home until Sunday night. When his Reserve unit arrived at the airport, all the local TV stations were there and they interviewed my son with is his 4-year old son. As far as the rest of the food for the picnic: shrimp cocktail, steamed clams, wilted spinach salad, potato salad, macaroni & tuna salad, 3 bean salad, baked beans, chili, deviled eggs, etc......Thank you Chef Carey for posting. It helped make my son's homecoming a memorable occasion.

Thanks, Howie, glad I could be of assistance in some small way. I remember the greeting (or lack thereof) when I returned from Vietnam - coming out of the Oakland terminal - don't think any American should ever have to experience that.

Thanks for re-posting Chef Carey's dry rub recipe. Elaine and I tried it yesterday with some baby back ribs. Great stuff! About 8 hours in the BBQ seemed about right. We are already looking for an opportunity to try it again, maybe with a pork loin.

Don't thank me, thank Chef Carey! Now my mouth is watering again, so I think I'll do another batch soon! I have some pork shoulders in the freezer and a sirloin tip roast also. However, the best BBQ I ever had was in Beaumont, TX, catered from a place called Doug Nelson's - the smoked beef ribs were out of this world. But the results of the Chef Carey stuff on pork is outstanding!

Bob,
My cooker looks like a modified 30 gal. grease drum with a stack at one end and an air inlet at the other. I built a small fire at one end and placed the ribs at the other, and added charcoal periodically during the day to maintain 200 - 225 degrees F., according to the thermometer on the cooker. I probably could have completed cooking in a shorter period of time but wanted to be sure they were thoroughly done.
Best